Mets Banner Day will die after 2013

The murder was committed by ESPN but it will be the Mets who stood by and watched it bleed out.

On June 3, 2012 the Mets played on Sunday Night Baseball. They started the day in first place at 31-23. They honored a former team captain John Franco. Two nights earlier Johan Santana had thrown a no-hitter and Mets fandom was at its 2012 peak.

The attendance for Sunday Night Baseball John Franco Night was 23,559 (56.1% full).

People do not enjoy attending Sunday 8:05pm starts. Even the Mets don’t choose to start their games at 8:05.

On May 27th 2012, also a Sunday, the Mets drew 28,361 (67.5% full). It was Banner Day.

I predict the Sunday Night game will fail to attract a crowd and Banner Day will die with the reason given that nobody cared.

…

Yesterday before Dan ruined my day by sending me the ESPN schedule I had actually contacted my ticket rep to see about the Party Deck. Now I have no interest.

Banner Day 2012 was a family event. Six of us from a little girl to grandma. Now, if I go at all, maybe it will be me and @mediagoon. No wife, no kids, no grandma. 8:05.

Folks ask why I can’t bring the kids to an 8:05 start. I might as well just burn the money. I don’t think the people who ask that question actually have kids. They’ll understand some day.

I don’t know if I’m going to go now. I can’t believe I am typing that. And when the Mets start to lose the last of the faithful…it’s death spiral time.

I hate Sunday Night. Banner Night is totally set-up for failure. I’m picturing us standing on-line with the feeling that it’s not as good as it was in 2012. Then comes apathy and the bad attendance number. Then Banner Day will die.

It’s ESPN’s fault for creating the mess.

It’s someone in Flushing’s fault for not fixing it. Move Banner Day to May 11th.

I look to you yet again Jeff Wilpon. You’re the COO. One wave of the hand and Banner Day is May 11th. Do you care about us? None of us believe you do. Your inaction speaks volumes. Opening Day starts at just $63. More Cowgill.

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Shannon Shark is the founder of MetsPolice.com, tweets as @metspolice, is an avid fan of Lee Mazzilli and Daniel Murphy, hates black uniforms and is the author of "Send The Beer Guy" available at Amazon.com. #imwith28

5 Responses

I don’t blame ESPN, they are just scheduling the Mets for one of the many Sunday night games. They don’t care about Banner Day. I blame the Mets for not rescheduling. This is January for crying out loud…just figure it out.

I really don’t understand the dramatics. You’re hurt over the fact that you can’t bring a banner to a game and parade around the field because it’s a little bit too late for you.

Newsflash: They aren’t ruining it, and they can bring it back in 2014 during a day game and people would still turn up. If people can make it, they will. If they can’t (which you made apparently clear), they won’t. It’s that simple.

Correlation does not equal causation. If you’re going to look at Sunday night attendance records, please also include the previous years in which they were contending. As one who frequents Citi Field, the attendance did not immediately pick up following Santana’s No-No. But you know what? You’re not going to bring up the fact that fireworks night on July 3rd sold out the stadium while the Mets were still thriving. They were selling standing room only tickets for $40. Oh, and they were playing the Baltimore Orioles.

What it boils down to is the fact that through the beginning of June there is little reason to believe (other than a super hot start in which they’re 15-20 games over) that the success of a mediocrely constructed team will have success, especially when said team has a history of late season collapses. Through June and into early July, attendance was up because there was less season less to play and they were still fighting.

People can complain about banner day, but a winning team will bring the least faithful person back and that’s what matters. I don’t like being spoken for, and this makes it seem as if only you and the other bloggers who are complaining about this matter are the most devoted, can’t make it, and therefore should change. It’s a tradition that was brought back. Is it a nice one? Sure. Is it something to ruin your day over? Well, that’s up to you. It’s just insulting to people who are also fans but choose to bring a banner on, well, a different day if they so choose.

Also: I don’t have kids. So no, I can’t speak for that which does not exist. I do understand that this is a holiday weekend in which schools have off the following day (effectively making it much like a Friday or Saturday night), so the aftermath isn’t waking up for school 5-6 hours later and having exhausted children (or complaining ones).

Monday Night Raw is the longest running weekly episodic television show in cable network history. They’re over 1,000 shows strong and the WWE promotes a family brand on Monday nights from 8-11. The amount of children in the audience is staggering, and the amount of families who bring their signs are massive. People will turn out for a quality product. If the Mets have a winning team on the field (and not just 7-8 games over .500 in late-May), people will turn out in droves and will carry over into the future. The fans have been hit hard, it will take a long time for them to return even if the team is winning in June.

If the Mets were to be 12 games over .500 on May 26th, I guarantee there would be 30,000 fans in the seats (especially if the Braves are solid as well).

Um, sorry the world can’t be perfectly scheduled for you. Weekend day games, sometimes, are inconvenient for some. My teen son and I like doing activities on spring afternoons, such as enjoying Manhattan, and then going to a nite game. And you’re missing another key point: that ESPN revenue, overall, is probably much more important to a cash-strapped team than selling another 3.000 to 5,000 tix on one particular day. Yeah, they can move Banner Day and make you smile, But what about people who already have tix for that day? And look forward to going?